For some years SIS has attended the spinal unit visiting the inpatients, more recently this presence was increased from twice monthly to weekly. It is also often the case that we respond to individual requests to attend when asked.
Glasgow
Attending the Glasgow Outreach Clinic was a natural extension of the outreach programme instigated in 1999, when, on request from Mr David Allan, (QENSIU Clinical Director), SIS began to have a presence at outreach clinics country-wide. That service has grown along with the number of venues and clinics held, from attending around four or five clinics annually to this year seventeen; it goes without saying that this is a large increase in commitment from both the charity and the spinal unit staff.
What do we do when we are at all these venues?
Well we're there to talk to anyone who wants to talk to us really, we're not on a sales or recruitment mission (since subscription fees have been scrapped we've nothing to sell!), we just want the maximum number of people living with the injury to be aware that there is a support network there for them, should they need it.
Relative Support
One of our most recent initiatives was to bring people who had lived with spinal injury for some years, along with their families and friends into the spinal unit, for the express purpose of meeting with newly injured patients but just as importantly the families and relatives of the new patients. This kind of relative support has been very well received and several of these meetings have now taken place.
It allows for those who are coming to terms with life with a spinal injury to see that life goes on, if a little differently. You can go on and stay in work or get a new job, get married and have children, go to college, in short pretty much everything anyone else would aspire to.
Spinal Unit Visits
Spinal Injuries Scotland carries out visits to the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit every Thursday from 12:30pm - 1:30pm in the day room and from 1:30pm – 3pm on the ward.
There are a number of Peer Support Volunteers who give up their time to come into the unit to speak to in-patients, their families and friends. The Peer Support team is made up of people who have the injury as well as relatives of those who have the injury. If you would like to speak to any of the Peer Support Volunteers you can either email Dougy Johnstone, Peer Support Manager on:
dougy@sisonline.org or by calling the office on:-
Freephone Line:
0800 0132 305
Outreach Clinics in QENSIU
Spinal Injuries Scotland attends review clinics in the outpatients department in the spinal unit. The idea behind these clinics is to offer Peer Support to people who are in for their review. This might be an annual review, bi-annual review or for another reason but SIS are there to offer support and give information about the organisation to those who might not have had the chance to speak to a Peer Support Volunteer, because they were either treated in a general hospital or they did not manage to see any volunteers as and in-patient. We also offer support to people that have been injured for a long time as well.
Outreach Clinics 2012
The Liaison Sisters from the spinal unit travel around Scotland carrying out review clinics in other hospitals and SIS go along to offer Peer Support to those attending these clinics. If you are attending a clinic, come and have a chat with a representative from SIS.
The clinics take place in the following hospitals:
Arbroath - Arbroath Infirmary
- 17th February 2012
- 11th May 2012
- 26th October 2012
Aberdeen - Woodend Hospital
- 28th March 2012
- 23rd May 2012
- 26th September 2012
- 28th November 2012
- 19th June 2012 (Huntly)
Borders - Borders General Hospital
- 20th April 2012
- 5th October 2012
Dumfries - Dumfries Royal Infirmary
- 14th March 2012
- 12th September 2012
Inverness - Raigmore Hospital
- 23rd February 2012
- 7th June 2012
- 23rd August 2012
- 6th December 2012